CFP: Sport, Politics and Public Policy

Sport, Politics and Public Policy call for papers

European Consortium for Political Research
ECPR Joint Sessions of Workshops, Nicosia, Cyprus, 25 - 30 April, 2006

Deadline for paper proposals: 1 December 2005.
More information on http://www.ecprnet.org.

Any analysis of public policy statements and interventions of (national and
sub-national level governments) worldwide belies the familiar cliché that sport
and politics should not mix . Sport is thus an increasingly significant
contributor to the public policy agendas of a diverse range of countries and
governments. In the UK, for example, governments on both sides of the political
spectrum have, over the last 10 years or so, invested large amounts of public
money into the development of elite athletes, school sport and physical
education, and initiatives to raise physical activity levels of the population.
Research activity in this field spans a broad array of interests and
perspectives (e.g. public policy analyses, comparative studies, sport and
international politics, sport, urban regeneration and mega-events, sport and
physical education, and sport and social exclusion). Papers that include a
comparative element are particularly welcome, however, given the
interdisciplinary nature of the field, and the broad array of interrelated
interests indicated above, we would also welcome the following type of papers:
macro and meso level public policy analyses, socio-political research, case
studies, empirical work and those from different methodological and theoretical
standpoints.

It is anticipated that some of the indicative questions for debate and
discussion in the workshop will include: Why are governments investing
increasingly large amounts of political and financial resources into sport? What
are the intended social, political and policy outcomes of such investment? Is
this the most efficient and effective allocation of scarce financial resources?
What are the relative roles of national and sub-national governments? And, given
the historically weak position of sport as a public policy issue: Is sport
policy now sufficiently embedded to withstand a downturn in government
interest?

Workshop directors:

Mick Green, Institute of Sport and Leisure Policy, School of Sport and Exercise
Sciences, Loughborough University, Loughborough, Leicestershire, LE11 3TU, UK
M.J.Green@lboro.ac.uk

Hilmar Rommetvedt, RF-Rogaland Research, P.O. Box 8046, N-4068 Stavanger, Norway
Hilmar.Rommetvedt@rf.no